Snooping Produces A Happy Ending

With the smiling faces of the Carter and Leber families looking up from a Kodak glossy at me, I reflect on how those smiles came about and realize that this thing started out all sorts of backwards.

I am the cop reporter in southern Broward County and smiling faces and happy outcomes do not frequently find their way into the stories I do.

All too often, as I am all too often reminded, I chase murder and mayhem, trouble and tragedy, illegal acts and the arrests of people who act illegally.

To put that news together I go to the police and listen to what they have to say, and then to the people involved to listen to what they have to say. Then I go to official records, lists, books and so-called experts to find out if the first two are on the up and up.

Poking your nose into many situations and talking with many people tends to build a variegated grapevine of contacts. Some people would say that makes me a good snoop, and some people would say that makes me helpful.

My guess is that the officers at the Hallandale Police Department consider me guilty on both counts and that is why they came to me this time instead of me going to them. And that`s how this whole thing started out backwards.

Hallandale`s Sgt. Ernest Tame called me on a slow Tuesday and told me that one of their detectives, Norm Beiger, wanted me to find a 10-year-old boy.

Beiger knew the boy`s name was Kris Carter, that the kid shoots a mean bow and arrow, and supposedly lived in Hollywood.

As a favor to a friend, Beiger had been trying to find Kris so that West Palm Beach artist Dan Leber could give the boy a painting he had done from a newspaper photograph he saw several months ago.

Leber had made unanswered phone calls to The Palm Beach Post which published the photo, and to several Carters in the Hollywood phone book. No luck.

A call to a Hollywood pastor named Carter put Leber in touch with parishioner Betty Santon, who jumped in and made 70 or so more calls. No luck.

Santon called her friend Beiger, who put some official inquiry into the search. No luck.

A kindly retired artist, taken by the look on a young archer`s face wanted to give a present to a child. The chore was becoming monstrous.

Finally, Tame called me.

I understood the problem Leber and Stanton and Beiger had been battling.

People are understandably wary of giving out information about 10-year-old boys. Perhaps some of the bad, negative stories that I`ve written about the things warped people do to children have caused that wariness.

So I began to rattle the grapevine. A little shake at the Broward School Board. A rustle at a few Hollywood elementary school offices. A poke at the county`s student accounting office.

And after a little pushing and prodding, darned if we didn`t get wine.

I got in touch with Kris Carter`s father, Bill, who had moved his family from Broward to Boynton Beach in August. He had never even seen the newspaper photograph, and had no idea a talented artist had turned the picture into a fine oil painting.

A meeting was set by the Fort Lauderdale News and Sun-Sentinel, and the outcome brought smiles.

An odd story for a police reporter; all heroes and no villains.

Dan Leber, 79, has a heart as big as his talent and never gave up.

``I had the painting hanging in a restaurant and people offered to buy it, but, I wanted to give it to the boy.``

Betty Stanton, who enthusiastically entered the search regardless that she had little to gain for her efforts.

Norm Beiger, who`s job also entails a lot of dirty work, was willing to give some time to human interest.

It turned out to be a story with a happy ending, and despite falling into it backwards, one of the favorites this cop reporter has done.